Key People

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Management

Eric Alterman, Founder & Chairman

Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and Professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is also "The Liberal Media" columnist for The Nation, a senior fellow and "Altercation" weblogger for Media Matters for America, (formerly at MSNBC.com) in Washington, DC, a senor fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where he writes and edits the "Think Again" column, a senior fellow (since 1985) at the World Policy Institute at The New School in New York, and a history consultant to HBO Films. Alterman is the author of six books, including the national bestsellers, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003, 2004), and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Mark Green, 2004). A former Adjunct Professor of Journalism at NYU and Columbia, Alterman received his B.A. in History and Government from Cornell, his M.A. in International Relations from Yale, and his Ph.D. in US History from Stanford. He lives with his family in Manhattan where he is completing his seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook to Post-Bush America., to be published by Viking in March 2008.

Alex Blum, CEO

As the CEO of KickApps, Alex is responsible for building a world class technology, marketing, business development, finance, and operations team with the goal of providing web publishers the tools to easily enable their sites with User Generated Content, Social Networking, Premium Video, and Content Syndication capabilities.

Before joining KickApps, Alex was President and COO of JumpTV, a leading Multi-Cultural Internet Protocol Television Network. Prior to JumpTV Alex spent 8 years at AOL most recently as the Vice President of Product Marketing for AOL's Audience business where Alex and his team were responsible for re-launching the AOL Portal and delivering an entire suite of web-based applications including: AOL's Video Player, Video Portal, Streaming Video advertising platform, AIM and AIMpages social networking service. Prior to that, Alex was General Manager of AOLTV, where he established strategic relationships with DirecTV, TiVo, OpenTV and Philips Electronics. Prior to joining AOL, Alex spent ten years in the software industry participating in three successful startup opportunities.

Alex has an MBA from the Albers School of Business at Seattle University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Peter Clark, Co-Founder

Pete Clark developed the original KickApps platform by working independently to build a high-traffic video upload destination site and continues to drive advanced technology for KickApps Corporation by serving as architect, developer, and chief cool-feature creator. Pete is a veteran of several large scale consumer-oriented development projects including Infonautics, CDNow, Wholesell.com, and NetByTel. Pete helped drive the rapid development of speech recognition applications by founding Quadfore Corporation, later acquired by Vocalocity, Inc.

Pete holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Mary Washington College, where he received C.S. Departmental Honors for VRML/Java research.

Rahul Daterao, CTO

As Chief Technology Officer, Rahul is responsible for overseeing all engineering development. Rahul has over 11 years career experience architecting enterprise level J2EE systems for leading financial services firms in the New York area including Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and Lehman Brothers.

He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University & B.E. in Computer Engineering from University of Mumbai.

Amol Daterao, CIO

As Chief Information Officer, Amol is responsible for KickApps architecture and advanced technologies. His experience includes developing and deploying enterprise solutions, hosting and serving, networking infrastructure, tools development, advanced engineering, and new technology development for a range of companies including Disney, ABC, Deutsche Bank, and The Middleware Company.

Amol received his Master's Degree in Computer Science from the Fairleigh Dickinson University & B.S. in Instrumentation Engineering from University of Mumbai.

David George, EVP, Business Development, Sales & Client Services

As the Executive Vice President of Business Development, Sales and Client Services, David is responsible for the customer facing business operations for KickApps. He has more then 18 years of global sales, business development, marketing, client services and corporate development experience with companies such as eBay, Maven Networks, NetGenesis Corporation, FTP Software and Xerox Corporation.

Prior to joining KickApps, David was the Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Alliances at Maven Networks. He joined Maven from eBay where he initiated and developed their international strategic partnership organization. eBay had acquired his former company, FairMarket, where he was the VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing. Before FairMarket, David spent over 5 years with NetGenesis where held executive level positions in sales, business development, corporate development and spent time based in London as their GM of International overseeing all aspects of the business. During his time at NetGenesis, he helped take them through two rounds of venture funding, an IPO, and successful acquisition. He also spent several years early in his career at FTP Software and Xerox Corporation in domestic and international sales management positions.

David received a B.S. in Business from the University of Rhode Island, attended Ealing College in London for International Business studies and has participated in executive education at Stanford University.

Mike Sommers, SVP, Product Management

As Senior Vice President of Product Management, Mike oversees all of KickApps’ product management efforts. He has over 12 years experience building Internet products. Before joining KickApps, Mike was VP of Product Development for AOL Search. In his 7 years at AOL, he was also responsible developing a variety of rich media, search and community products. Prior to joining AOL Mike worked for a variety of Silicon Alley startups in New York City.

Mike has a B.A. degree from Columbia University.

Michael Chin, SVP, Marketing

Michael leads the company’s marketing and communications strategy and efforts to evangelize the market potential of social media and the KickApps platform for major brands, global media companies, independent publishers and professional web developers. He brings a broad background of experience in Internet and Web 2.0 technology, enterprise software, mobile entertainment and consumer electronics.

Before joining KickApps, Michael was a director at Bite Communications, a global communications consultancy serving both blue chip companies and emerging start-up brands. At Bite, he spearheaded the agency’s New York City expansion to establish its media and entertainment services portfolio. Prior to that, Michael was Director of Marketing at StormPlay Entertainment Systems and an Account Manager at Niehaus Ryan Wong. Michael has worked with numerous well-known brands, including Virgin Life Care, BEA Systems, VERITAS Software, Become.com, Creative Labs and Netscape.

Michael has a B.A. in Politics with certificates in Legal Studies and Peace & Justice Studies from the University of San Francisco.

Matt Bijur, VP, Business Development

Running KickApps’ Los Angeles office, Matt is responsible for driving sales and strategic partnerships in the Sports and Entertainment verticals. Prior to KickApps, Matt spent two years as the President of CoSport, an Olympic hospitality startup offering high-end hospitality services to corporations and high net-worth individuals.

Matt holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Architecture and Economics from Middlebury College.

John Gabarino, Director, Business Development

John is responsible for driving sales and strategic relationships among east coast publishing and media & entertainment companies. Prior to KickApps, John was the Northeast Director of Business Development for Nine Systems, a content management software company and CDN, which was acquired by Akamai in late 2006. Before joining Nine Systems, John was a National Account Manger at XO Communications, where he held the unique position of reporting to the Chairman’s office, Icahn Associates, handling all business opportunities for XO that came through Carl Icahn’s office. John began his career in advertising and public relations as an associate for Bozell Sawyer Miller Group and in 1997 changed his focus to work for Internet based companies.

John holds a B.A. in Politics from Wake Forest University.

Jeff Zaretsky, VP, Business Development & Partnerships

Jeff is responsible for driving strategic relationships and building the KickApps partner network. Prior to KickApps, Jeff held business and product development leadership positions at TimeWarner's AOL division focusing on digital and social media out of the New York City, Dulles, and Silicon Valley offices. Earlier, Jeff worked as a management consultant for Deloitte. Jeff holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Board of Directors

Eric Alterman

View bio above.

Alex Blum

View bio above.

Woody Benson

Woody joined Prism in 2004 and leads the firm's Digital Living practice. He also invests in mobile and on-demand software businesses. Woody is currently a director for LogMeIn, Everypoint, M:Metrics, KickApps and Maven Networks. He was formerly on the board of Salesnet, acquired by RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ: RNOW).

A former CEO with over 26 years of technology, communications, software, and consumer marketing experience, he came to Prism from Lazard Technology Partners where he managed the firm's Boston office.

Career highlights include serving as Chairman, President and CEO of MCK Communications, a provider of packet voice solutions. Woody grew MCK from 25 to 200 employees and took the company public in 1999 with a subsequent secondary offering in 2000. MCK reached a peak market cap of greater than $1 billion.

Woody was the number two executive at Shiva Corp. where he grew revenue from $10 million to over $200 million and oversaw worldwide expansion including major business development agreements with the world's top communications vendors.

Previously, Woody held a number of executive positions at Lotus Development and managed the formation of the firm's OEM business which resulted in the delivery of over 25 million pieces of software to the world's top PC manufacturers.

In 1999 he was awarded the "CEO of the Year" by the Mass Telecom Council.

Woody is a frequent lecturer at the area's top schools including Harvard, MIT, and Bentley. He serves on the board of the Massachusetts Network Communications Council, the MIT Enterprise Forum 10-250 Committee, and the American Red Cross and is Chairman of the Bentley Private Equity Council.

He lives with his wife and two children in Newton, MA.

Sara Levinson

Sara Levinson is the Chairman of ClubMom and former President of the Women's Publishing Group at Rodale, Inc. Prior to Rodale, Sara served as President of NFL Properties Inc., the licensing, marketing, and sponsorship division of the National Football League. As President of NFL Properties she oversaw a $2 billion consumer products and e-commerce division, corporate sponsorship, marketing, special events, club services and publishing.

Prior to NFL Properties, Sara served at MTV Networks as President-Business Director of MTV, where she oversaw marketing, research, new business development, ancillary business, strategic operations and international operations. During her tenure at MTV she directed the network's global expansion, including the launches of MTV Brazil, MTV Asia, and MTV Latino.

Sara is also a member of the board of directors at Harley Davidson and Federated Department Stores. She was named the first "Woman of the Year" by Women in Sports in 1995. A native of Portsmouth, Virginia, she is a 1972 graduate of Cornell University and received her Master's in Business Administration from Columbia University in 1976.

Jordan Levy

Mr. Levy currently serves as a Partner for New York investments with SoftBank Capital. Mr. Levy is also a Managing General Partner of Seed Capital Partners, an early stage technology venture fund which he co-founded in 1999 with Ron Schreiber. He currently serves as a Director of CompanyDNA, GT3, The NewsMarket <http://www.thenewsmarket.com> , SilverCarrrot, CoKem International, and XOsoft.

In 1990, Mr. Levy and Mr. Schreiber founded Upgrade Corporation, the first technology customer relationship outsourcing company. Mr. Levy served as the company’s President and Co-CEO with an emphasis on sales, marketing, and all customer-facing activities. Upgrade’s investors, Venrock and Euclid, realized a significant return when the company was sold to SoftBank to form SoftBank Services Group. SoftBank Services Group was sold to Onyx Corporation for over $100 million. The company is now known as ClientLogic.

In 1988, Mr. Levy served as Senior Vice President of merchandising at Software Etc., a chain of 280 retail software and video games stores. Software Etc. is now Gamestop, the world’s largest retailer of video games and software.

In 1982, Mr. Levy joined Mr. Schreiber at Software Distribution Services, a distributor of every major computer peripheral and software vendor. He served as the company’s Vice-President with responsibility for sales and marketing and grew the company from $0 to $100 million in profitable revenue. After selling the business in 1985 to form Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM), Mr. Levy assumed the role of Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Ingram Micro and grew the company to $1 billion in revenue. Ingram Micro is currently the largest technology distributor in the world and has a market capitalization of $2 billion and generates $23 billion in revenue.

Jarl Mohn

Jarl Mohn brings extensive media experience to the KickApps board of directors. Jarl was founding president and CEO of Liberty Digital, a publicly traded subsidiary of Liberty Media Group that invested in interactive television, cable television networks and Internet enterprises. Jarl founded and served as President and CEO of E! Entertainment Television for nine years, growing the business internationally, on-line and with the additional creation of Style. Jarl also served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of MTV and VH1 in the mid eighties. In addition to KickApps, Jarl is on the board at CNET Networks, the E.W. Scripps Company, XM Satellite Radio and MobiTV. He is also a trustee of numerous nonprofit organizations.

Santo Politi

Santo Politi is a founder and General Partner of Spark Capital. His investments at Spark include thePlatform (acq’d by Comcast; NASDAQ:CMCSA) and KickApps.

Mr. Politi most recently was a General Partner at Charles River Ventures with an investment focus on media and entertainment infrastructure. His investments at CRV include Big Band Networks, Broadbus Technologies (acq’d by Motorola; NYSE:MOT) and Groove Mobile.

Prior to joining Charles River in early 2001, Mr. Politi served as President of New Media for Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:BBI), where he was responsible for establishing a new operating division focused on extending the company beyond its brick and mortar retail stores into digital broadcast and video on demand.

Before his work at Blockbuster, Mr. Politi co-founded BT Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm affiliated with Bankers Trust. Some of his successful investments at BT Venture Partners include Aether Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:AETH), Novatel Wireless, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVTL) and Digital Think (NASDAQ:DTHK; acq’d by Convergys; NYSE:CVG).

Mr. Politi has held various engineering and management positions with the Video Systems Division of Matsushita Electric Industrial in Osaka, Japan; Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems Company and Weston Instruments, a subsidiary of Schlumberger Industries.

Mr. Politi holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Electrical Engineering from NJIT and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Mr. Politi is fluent in Japanese, conversational in Spanish and French and is a native Turkish speaker. He is also the recipient of the EMMY Excellence in Technology Award as part of the Panasonic M.A.R.C. team.